Screaming Eagles to battle for seventh

By Tim Hower

Saturday

Dec 29, 2007 at 12:01 AMDec 29, 2007 at 2:36 PM

Ashley basketball coach Chad Duncan has reminded his team again and again that they can't get off to a slow start.The message still hasn't soaked in.Archbishop Alter (Ohio) scored the first nine points of Friday's Leon Brogden Holiday Basketball Tournament consolation game en route to a 58-44 victory.The Screaming Eagles failed to score for the first five minutes. Their first basket came when Zach Finnegan drained a 3-pointer, but the Knights led16-6 following the first quarter."It's called maybe seeing what your facing, like zone or man, adjust quick enough and let's attack what we are supposed to do," Ashley coach Chad Duncan said. "That's the main point I just made in there."I really don't know how else to say it. We've got to come out and have a good warmup and attack the way we are supposed to."Ashley will face Hoggard at 2 p.m. today, while Archbishop Alter will take on Fayetteville Seventy-First at 3:30 p.m.The Knights stretched their lead to 31-19 at halftime when Ryan Siggins drained a jumper at the buzzer.Siggins, who scored 18 points on Thursday, was held to nine on 4-for-17 shooting.Jamarre White and Brian Dougherty picked up the slack scoring 20 and 10, respectively."They did a good job getting it to (White) down low, and that was tough for us because we had to put a guard on him," Duncan said.A pair of 3-pointers, by Tyler Farias and C.J. Caldwell, cutAlter's lead to 35-29 with 3:05 left in the third quarter. That was as close as the Screaming Eagles would get."That was our goal, but then it was supposed to be 'lets keep going' and I don't know what happened," Duncan said. "It's right there if we can start the game out."Ashley's shooting went cold in the fourth quarter. They made three of 14 shots and one of nine 3-pointers.The Knights' zone defense challenged the Screaming Eagles to attempt long-range shots. Ashley made four of 17 3-pointers."I thought they did a pretty good job of attacking (the zone)," Alter coach Joe Petrocelli said. "The shots just didn't fall for them."Ajay Singh scored 13 points to lead Ashley. Elijah Bonsignore added nine points and eight rebounds.ARCHBISHOP ALTER-Tony Boyle 4, Nick Royer 4, Brian Dougherty 10, Jamarre White 20, Ryan Siggins 9, Mike Joseph 3, Trevor Heitz 8. Totals 21 14-19 58.Ashley-Xavier James 5, C.J. Caldwell 7, Zach Finnegan 3, Tyler Farias 6, Elijah Bonsignore 9, Ajay Singh 13, Reid Clark 1. Totals 16 8-14 44.Archbishop Alter 16 15 12 15 - 58Ashley 6 13 15 10 - 443-pointers: Archbishop Alter 2 (White, Siggins); Ashley 3 (Farias 2, Caldwell, Finnegan). Rebounds: Archbishop Alter 32 (Siggins 7); Ashley 25 (Bonsignore 8). Assists: Archbishop Alter 16 (Dougherty, Siggins 4); Ashley 11 (Finnegan 4).tim.hower@starnewsonline.com

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